Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Relationships
Sacrificial Friendship
My beloved friends,
let us continue to love one another
since love comes from God.
Everyone who loves is born of God
and experiences a relationship with God.
1 JOHN 4:7 (THE MESSAGE)
Before I went through my own season of suffering, I had friends, but I didn’t understand how important those relationships really were. Sure, I enjoyed my friends – it was nice to have them but it certainly didn’t seem to me that I NEEDED those relationships. Boy, did that ever change!
I learned that you cannot get through pain and suffering on your own. You eventually come to the end of yourself and you need another person there to stand beside you and lift you up. We all need to have a friend who is willing to make the personal sacrifice to be with you so that you are not alone – what a powerful sacrifice and expression of true love.
When I was struggling, it was important for me to know that my true friends really were willing to sacrifice their time and hearts for me. Their sacrifice was a demonstration of God’s love for me.
This is how we’ve come to understand
and experience love: Christ sacrificed His love for us.
This is why we ought to live sacrificially
for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.
If you see some brother or sister in need and
have the means to do something about it
but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing,
what happens to God’s love?
It disappears. And you made it disappear.
My dear children, let’s not just talk about love;
let’s practice real love.
1 JOHN 3:16-18 (THE MESSAGE)
On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky